What if the owner of the car had Progressive's dash cam for good driving discount? When he has to pay for car insurance he notices a massive spike, he calls, finds out when, sees his car was in for service during the incident. What then? Obviously his insurance rates would go down, but would the recording from the dash cam be acceptable evidence of the tech thrashing on his car?

Screw this dealer. Call me ocd, but I write down the mileage of my car when I take it for service, anywhere.

The owner illegally taped someone, but it ocurred in his car. This is a privacy v. property rights case. Interesting to see how this plays out.

The owner gave his car willingly to the dealer, he would have needed to furnish this information that he has a video recording device set up in the car OR should have turned it off. Its similar to having a 'nanny' cam in your home -- but home vs. car debate wouldn't be the same deal.

If the guy stole his vehicle it would have been a different with the video. As with anything in the law -- grey areas all around.

The owner gave his car willingly to the dealer, he would have needed to furnish this information that he has a video recording device set up in the car OR should have turned it off. Its similar to having a 'nanny' cam in your home -- but home vs. car debate wouldn't be the same deal.

If the guy stole his vehicle it would have been a different with the video. As with anything in the law -- grey areas all around.

Not video recording, sound recording. What about my example of the Progressive good driving dash cam? Scroll up in the thread and read it.

Thats nothing to one that came from a BMW dealer a few years ago. An M5 badly damaged racing while in service. A tech was racing in in and lost control and took the car over a curb and into some obstruction. Dude had to sue.

Tons of things like this happen at dealers.
My son is a Hyundai tech, at the dealership he works at in the back of the shop there is a sharp drop off of about 18 inches, every time they get a new lube tech a car gets run right off that drop off, if the damage is not visible nobody says a thing. In all honesty the design is beyond dumb, who the hell puts an 18" drop off right next to driveway ramp facing into the sun all afternoon long, they need to put up a barrier so people know. They bet lunch each time a new one starts as to how long till they drive off it.
Yesterday I was at an Arby's when someone from a local Ford dealer was pulling out of the parking lot and he went right over a curbstone/planter those 2x2 sqaure ones, Did not even flinch just right over the thing with a sickening crunch in a new Focus.

The owner gave his car willingly to the dealer, he would have needed to furnish this information that he has a video recording device set up in the car OR should have turned it off. Its similar to having a 'nanny' cam in your home -- but home vs. car debate wouldn't be the same deal.

If the guy stole his vehicle it would have been a different with the video. As with anything in the law -- grey areas all around.

To my knowledge, there is no law that states you have to inform someone you're recording video of them in your own home.

Audio laws are actually more strict than video, however audio within video does follow the same audio guidelines.

It comes down to whether or not the mechanics had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and whether or not their conversation can be considered confidential. If they were at their business, it could be claimed they had both. If they were in your car, especially off company property doing the burnout/having the conversation, then I think the car owner would stand a good chance in court.

Best bet, depending on damage, could be small claims court where the judge has more leniency to determine what they want to hear and take into account.

Bottom line, the bad press should be enough to get the dealership to do something. Perhaps the owner should organize a "call the dealership" event where people call and inquire about how their service department treats customers cars.

Lol. Damage control engaged . . . I suppose the talk about tricking the owner into buying a replacement clutch was just them practicing things never to do?

lol there was an article i read about it. they claimed these high performance cars are built to drive hard. hahaha at least the owner is happy that they purchased his car back for more than retail. I'd be happy... take the money and run

lol there was an article i read about it. they claimed these high performance cars are built to drive hard. hahaha at least the owner is happy that they purchased his car back for more than retail. I'd be happy... take the money and run

Well if that's the case they need to be upfront about what needs to be done to properly diagnose the car. They're just trying to back out of it. No excuse for trying to blame clutch damage on the owner lol. I'd take the money and still try and humble them a bit.

I had a somewhat similar incident where I bought a used Saleen from a dealership. They downplayed engine issues, said they replaced stuff, etc. Engine blew during low RPM driving a 1000 miles later. The powertrain warranty they said it had, they never transfered, so they tried to say tough luck. I found a lady through the Saleen forums who videod the car making valvetrain noise when she test drove it. I wrote a letter to the owner after not getting anywhere with sales. Long story short(er), they cut me a check for 5k and I fixed the motor myself . . . with a stroked forged unit .